“Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress.”
Image: John Darkow
Tag Archives: economy
Zero Credit
The image above represents something very important to me and I’m sure to most working people. For the first time since about 2000 I have no credit card debt. I paid off my last outstanding credit card in February and felt so ecstatic I almost had an orgasm! Key word – “almost”. But it’s still a great feeling. Credit card debt has been one of my vices – along with alcohol and road rage. Then again credit card debt has been the vice of many Americans. Currently Americans hold approximately USD 1.13 trillion in credit card debt; an expense that worsened with the 2008 economic downturn and even more so with the COVID-19 pandemic. (Ironically a Republican was president of the United States at the start of each fiasco, which may or may not factor into it – but that’s a different matter.)
I remember paying off a massive amount of credit card debt in 1998, along with the truck loan I had at the time. And I was able to stay debt free until I lost my job at a bank in 2001. Odd how those two things often coincide, isn’t it?
I always used to tell myself I just needed to earn more money. I struggled constantly when I worked for that bank and I kept saying I should return to college and earn a degree. I finally did that in 2007. But after graduating in December 2008, the engineering company I was working for then couldn’t afford much in the way of salary increases because of – wait for it – the sudden economic downturn. Damn! Then I got laid off in the fall of 2010 and struggled somewhat as I tried to make my freelance technical writing career flourish.
But by then, I’d learned an even more important lesson: you don’t always solve money problems with money. Indeed some people earn six and seven figure annual salaries and are always in debt. It’s true, for the most part, that middle class incomes have shrunk considerably since the late 1970s; that is, in relation to the overall cost of living. A few years ago economic statisticians finally confirmed what the rest of us lowly working class drones already knew – “trickle down” economics doesn’t work! It never has and it never will. Yet conservative politicians keep pushing that theory onto the masses, and many people keep falling for it. That’s why I say my brain is too big to be conservative – with all due respect to my conservative friends and relatives.
In high school I was forced to take algebra and geometry and later wondered what purpose either discipline served. Other than knowing the shortest distance between two objects is a straight line, I feel that the ability to balance a checkbook and figure out percentages (so you know how much to tip the bartender) are the only truly essential math. Budgeting should be included. It’s good to know how long a light year is, but it’s more important to realize that it’s not worth having a savings account if you have more in credit card debt. Two plus two is so hard for some folks to figure out.
Regardless I’m glad I don’t have to wait for that zombie apocalypse to wipe out my credit card debt. Reality is often better.
Filed under Essays
Labor Day 2022
Filed under News
Best Quote of the Week – April 9, 2022
“I think — you know, a lot of my friends are registered Republicans living out there. They think that too. I mean, it’s just so outrageous. That $2 trillion tax cut, the last guy — what was his name? Anyway, the last guy…I forgot it. He never showed up for the inauguration, but anyway.”
President Joe Biden, at North America’s Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference
Filed under News
Best Quote of the Week – March 5, 2022
“Despite the incredible heroism of Ukraine’s people, it’s still more likely than not that the Russian flag will eventually be planted amid the rubble of Kyiv and Kharkiv. But even if that happens, the Russian Federation will be left weaker and poorer than it was before the invasion. Conquest doesn’t pay.”
Paul Krugman, commenting on the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Filed under News
Best Quotes of the Week – May 22, 2021
“Holy crap. Perhaps a U.S. Senator shouldn’t suggest that the Russian military is better than the American military that protected him from an insurrection he helped foment?”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, responding to a Tweet by Sen. Ted Cruz criticizing the U.S. military’s diversity endeavors
“We can’t even imagine the thinking behind Gov. Abbott’s callous decision to strip the remaining federal unemployment insurance benefits out of the pockets of Texas working families. If he took the time or had any interest in understanding the challenges working people face, Gov. Abbott would see clearly that folks across Texas desperately need these funds as they try to navigate their way through the economic carnage of the pandemic.”
Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, reacting to Gov. Abbott’s decision to opt out of federal unemployment benefits extensions
“The Big Pharma fairy tale is one of groundbreaking R&D that justifies astronomical prices. But the pharma reality is that you spend most of your company’s money making money for yourself and your shareholders.”
Rep. Katie Porter, to Richard Gonzalez, CEO of pharmaceutical giant AbbVie, about increasingly high costs for prescription drugs
During the U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing, Porter also declared, “You lie to patients when you charge them twice as much for an unimproved drug, and then you lie to policymakers when you tell us that R&D justifies those price increases.”
Gonzalez’s 2020 total compensation topped USD 24 million.
Filed under News
Best Quotes of the Week – March 6, 2021
“Abbott has purposefully injected a new infection into the state in the form of irresponsible policies that will promote unnecessary infection, hospitalization and death.”
Dr. Kavita Patel, on the announcement by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to reopen the state 100% to retailers, restaurants and other businesses, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
“The Republican Party’s biggest problem is that too many people of color are exercising their right to vote. The party’s solution is a massive push for voter suppression that would make old-time Jim Crow segregationists proud.”
Eugene Robinson, in a Washington Post editorial
“I think a lot of us assumed that we were the dominant gene – if only because the country was changing so much – that out of its own self-interest the party would have to change. We saw the dark side. We thought it was a recessive gene. And I don’t know any conclusion to come to except that we were wrong.”
Stuart Stevens, on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams” 03/03/21
Filed under News
Tweet of the Week – January 30, 2021
Filed under News
Best Quotes of the Week – January 23, 2021
“This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge. Unity is the path forward. And we must meet this moment as the United States of America. If we do that, I guarantee you we will not fail.”
President Joe Biden, in his inaugural address
“The idea that you can get up here and … let the science speak, it is somewhat of a liberating feeling.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic during a White House press conference
“We cut taxes for $5 trillion, almost all of it to the wealthiest people in America. And we borrowed every penny to do that.”
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), criticizing the sudden concern about the U.S. budget deficit by his Republican colleagues during a U.S. Senate hearing
Bennet added that “we’ve made some poor choices in terms of what we’ve borrowed money to spend on. Two wars in the Middle East that lasted for 20 years that cost us something like $5.6 trillion, all of which was borrowed, none of which was paid for.”
“Opine all you like, but if you’re going to opine, begin with the truth and opine from there. When people begin with a false premise and lead people astray, that’s injurious to society and it’s the antithesis of what we should be doing: Those of us who are so honored and grateful to have a platform of public influence have to use it for the public good.”
Shephard Smith, former FOX News host and current CNBC anchor, on why he left FOX
Smith also revealed that he stayed at Fox News from its 1996 inception until 2019 to act as a counterbalance to the network’s right-wing leanings.
Filed under News
Chief Writing Wolf 